The Alternative Summer Movie Season: What to Watch At Home Instead of All the Delayed Films

Some movie theaters owners are hopeful that we will be back at the multiplex in late July. Even if that best-case estimate is correct, that still means that we’re in for at least three more months without blockbusters — right at the start of summer movie season, which typically kicks off in late April and winds down in early August. Even if theaters do open later this summer, most of the biggest movies expected in theaters from now until then have already been pushed back to the fall, the Christmas season, or even next year.

If you’re already going through summer movie season withdrawals, you’re not alone (he typed, wistfully, while quietly sobbing into his novelty Avengers: Infinity War dish towel). There’s nothing quite like a big movie on a giant screen with huge sound and dozens of excited moviegoers cheering along — certainly nothing at home. How are we going to fill that void?

Here’s my suggestion: Create an “Alternative Summer Movie Season” at home, with a targeted movie recommendation to watch instead of each of the films that has been pushed back to later in 2020 or 2021. Below, I’ve assembled a list of 15 postponed blockbusters from April through July, and paired each of them with a movie that is currently available for streaming at home on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, the Criterion Channel, or elsewhere.

These alternatives were selected to trigger at least some of the same endorphins as the movies we’ve temporarily lost. It’s obviously not as good as a true summer movie season, but it’s better than nothing.